4A |
SATURDAY EDITION
| SEPTEMBER 4, 2021
Siuslaw News
P.O. Box 10
Florence, OR 97439
CHANTELLE MEYER , EDITOR
| 541-902-3520 | CMEYER @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM
Opinion
The First Amendment
Congress shall make no law respecting
an establishment of religion or prohibit-
ing the free exercise thereof; or abridg-
ing the freedom of speech, or of the
press, or the right of the people peace-
ably to assemble, and to petition the
Government for a redress of grievances.
“I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.” — Thomas Jefferson (1800)
USPS# 497-660
LETTERS
(Editor’s Note: Viewpoint sub-
missions on these and other topics
are always welcome as part of our
goal to encourage community dis-
cussion and exchange of perspec-
tives.)
Consequential Questions
As a consequence of the news
and recent letters on the issue of
mandating vaccinations for health
care workers, I wish to pose the
following questions:
If a patient of a health care
worker is infected by the work-
er, can that provider and/or the
worker’s employer be sued?
Could a criminal charge be
made against the worker for reck-
less endangerment?
— Bill Durst
Florence
Doggone Dunes
It’s heartening to see that kind
people still exist. Two of the best
helped us find our runaway dog
Tuesday, Aug. 31.
As our walk at Munsel Green-
way Park was ending, instead of
coming to get leashed up, our dog
took off and disappeared into the
dunes.
As we frantically searched, we
encountered a couple, asked if
they’d seen our dog and explained
what happened. Without hesita-
tion, their reply was, “We’ll help
you look for him.”
We went off in different direc-
tions and searched.
The story has a happy ending
thanks to these caring people.
They found and rounded up our
dog.
We want to express our grat-
itude to these wonderful folks.
We don’t know who you are, but
hope you see this and know we
are deeply grateful for your help.
— Rosie and Greg Hill
Florence
A Focus on this
Great Country
As I sat down to write this Letter
to the Editor, I was going to focus
on what has been going on in this
great country of ours in the past
eight months with the stimulus
packages, federal infrastructure
spending, illegal immigration,
inflation, human infrastructure
and now with what is going on in
Afghanistan and the loss of 13 of
our soldiers, with no one to blame
by this current president and ad-
ministration. To say the least I am
livid over all of it, especially since
this country was doing so well in
2019 on a local and federal level
and also on the world stage.
However, before I went any fur-
ther, I sat down to read the Siuslaw
News Opinion page from Aug. 25
and read the letter from Sue Hale,
“Arrival of Cancel Culture?”
I never read the letters from Ms.
Spradling or Mr. Denton that she
refers to, but how right Ms. Hale
was with her letter.
Since I am 79, I can reflect on a
lot of life, like she has in her late
80s. After reading her letter, it re-
minded me of two other letters
that I did read on Aug. 14 under
Community Voices.
To that point, I want to thank
Mr. Joel Marks for his article on
“The Forgotten Man.” It was so
well written.
Since I was taught in my his-
tory class in school about Presi-
dent James Madison, it made me
wonder if that is taught in school
today? Mr. Marks, the newspa-
per should run your article every
week as a reminder about how
much logic and common sense
has gone out the window, espe-
cially in the past eight months.
Also, I wish to thank Pastor
Ron Allen from the First Baptist
Church of Florence for his col-
umn, “We Were Once Free Men.”
He read from Galatians 5:1 and
also stated how our country today
is losing many of the basic rights
that our Constitution of unit-
ed independent states originally
formed. As a matter of fact, people
today rarely acknowledge that it is
clearly articulated in the name of
our republic and affirmed in our
Declaration of Independence and
our Constitution — the United
States of America.
— Linda Payton
Florence
Keeping Trim Lines
Dear Central Lincoln PUD,
We’ve been living on the North
Fork Siuslaw Road for the last
six years. We’ve recognized your
significant efforts to provide and
maintain our power services.
Recently, my wife noticed and
appreciated your extensive efforts
to trim back trees that have had
the potential to interrupt power,
and perhaps, to cause a fire.
I’d been wondering for years
if you’d inventoried or surveyed
your lines on the road since trees
that had fallen had cut power, usu-
ally briefly. We’ve been impressed
by your rapid interventions to re-
store power.
I’m a former Californian and
fought forest fires there in the se-
quoias and coastal redwoods 50
years ago. While it was sometimes
harrowing, our crew’s efforts can’t
be compared to the current state
of the forest that has been mas-
sively affected by climate change.
Back in 1989, a friend in Alas-
ka, the retired state forester, in-
troduced me to the then-nascent
problem of spruce bark beetle
overwintering enabled by climate
change. The explosive damage it
was doing to our forests was rap-
idly causing widespread die offs
and presenting the prospects of
forest fires beyond one’s imagina-
tion.
I visited Paradise in early 2019
and observed the devastation
resulting from the Camp Fire
caused by a PG&E (Pacific Gas &
Electric Company) problem.
The current Dixie Fire, which
has consumed over a half mil-
lion acres, and destroyed over 600
homes, also started with a fuse
failure after a tree fell.
The local public TV station
in San Francisco had this story
about the logistical circumstanc-
es that combined to result in that
fire, which rages on, “Why It Took
PG&E 9.5 Hours to Get to the
Scene Where Dixie Fire Started.”
(Read it on www.kqed.org.) You
might find it informative and
helpful.
Thanks again for your fine
work.
— Frank Smith
Florence
Ambulance Service
Ain’t Broke
Thank you to Mike Webb for
his thoughtful and rational Guest
Viewpoint (“Why I Support Pub-
lic Over For Profit When it Comes
to Ambulance Service…” Siuslaw
News, Sept. 1) with regard to pri-
vatization of Western Lane Am-
bulance District (WLAD).
We have excellent service now
and the WLAD Board of Direc-
tors have done a wonderful job.
As has been seen with privat-
ization of prisons, without gov-
ernmental oversight, we get less
qualified, underpaid and under-
trained staffing. Abuses occur.
As the saying goes, “If it ain’t
broke, don’t fix it.”
— Marybeth Marenco
Florence
Let Freedom Ring —
But Just for Me
As for the “Let freedom ring”
resolution (or whatever it’s
called), proposed to the Florence
City Council, why stop there?
Why demand so little?
Why not refuse traffic lights
and speed limits? They’re not in
the Constitution, and neither is
the law of gravity, one I’m not
fond of.
If we are going to pick and
choose which laws we deem wor-
thy to obey and which to discard
because they are inconvenient, I
am on board!
I completely agree with you —
the world ends when I die.
Nothing matters but my instant
gratification. Your logic runs
rings around me! Let freedom
ring!
Be careful on Highway 101,
however. I’m going 70 mph, ig-
noring traffic lights and in the left
lane because rules don’t apply to
me. Good luck.
P.S. I just read that Klickitat
County Sheriff Bob Songer sent
a letter to Washington’s governor
stating that he was a “Constitu-
tional” sheriff (what ever that
means), and would only observe
the laws he saw fit — as in mask
mandates. He then spent five
days in the hospital and was re-
leased still on oxygen because of
COVID-19.
— Edward Gunderson
Florence
You Have Been Lied To
At the Dunes City Council
meeting on Aug. 25 (Siuslaw
News, Aug. 28, “Dunes City Hears
About Water, Council Considers
Masks”), Councilor Duke Wells
refused Councilor Robert Orr’s
request for everyone to wear a
mask by stating, “It’s just how I
was raised and who I am. I just
feel like I have been lied to.”
Mr. Wells, you have been lied to
— by Sean Hannity, Tucker Carl-
son and the other “talking heads”
on FOX.
Only FOX has politicized the
pandemic. Only FOX declared
the coronavirus to be a hoax, un-
til more than 500,000 American’s
lost their lives. Only FOX has
questioned the recommendations
of the CDC to get vaccinated and
only FOX has belittled the impor-
tance of wearing a mask.
Yes, Mr. Wells, you have been
lied to. Time to change the chan-
nel so you get news instead of
nonsense.
If you wonder why we are still
in Florence and not back in Nash-
ville, it’s because your governor,
Gov. Kate Brown, had the cour-
age to require everyone to wear
a mask, unlike Tennessee’s Gov-
ernor Lee, who has no backbone.
His failure to issue a mask man-
date has resulted in Tennessee to
become No. 1 in the number of
cases/population (156,000 cases
per million people, according to
www.worldometers.info/corona-
virus), while Oregon is at No. 48
(67,000 cases per million).
Wear a mask, stop the virus
from spreading, do what’s right
for your neighbor and commu-
nity.
— Mark Riebau
Nashville, Tenn., and Florence
Copyright 2021 © Siuslaw News
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WHERE TO WRITE
President Joseph Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
TTY/TDD: 202-456-6213
www.whitehouse.gov
900 Court St. NE - S-417
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1705
Email: Sen.DickAnderson@
oregonlegislature.gov
Oregon Gov.
Kate Brown
State Rep.
Boomer Wright (Dist. 9)
State Sen. Dick
Anderson (Dist. 5)
160 State Capitol 900 Court St.
900 Court St. NE
Salem, Ore. 97301-4047
Salem, OR 97301
Message Line:
503-986-1409
503-378-4582
Email: Rep.BoomerWright@
www.oregon.gov/gov
oregonlegislature.gov
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden
221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244 | 541-431-0229
www.wyden.senate.gov
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley
Lane County Dist. 1
Commissioner
Jay Bozievich
125 E. Eighth St.
Eugene, OR 97401
541-682-4203
Email: Jay.Bozievich@
co.lane.or.us
313 Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753 | 541-465-6750
Florence City Council
www.merkley.senate.gov
& Mayor Joe Henry
Florence City Hall, 250
U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio Highway 101, Florence, 97439
(4th Dist.)
541-997-3437
2134 Rayburn HOB
ci.florence.or.us
Washington, DC 20515
Email comments to Florence
202-225-6416
City Recorder Kelli Weese at
541-269-2609 | 541-465-6732 kelli.weese@ci.florence.or.us
www.defazio.house.gov